They’re Up 18 After Three

Warriors fans had some fun as Golden State sprinted out to a 61-48 halftime lead.

It’s almost a crime to be having this much fun. The Warriors’ fans are on the brink of delirium here in the third quarter, Monta Ellis having just been fouled while hitting a fallaway jump shot. He completed the three-point play, and the Warriors left the floor with an 89-71 lead heading into the fourth.

You really wonder what’s going through Mark Cuban’s mind right now. He wasn’t at all disappointed to have lost coach Don Nelson in favor of Avery Johnson, but suddenly the scheme doesn’t look so sharp. Nelson is engineering miracles (or maybe not) with an eight-man rotation. Johnson is the guy who mysteriously benched all of his starters for his last regular-season meeting against Nelson, then abandoned a successful, season-long blueprint by starting Dirk Nowitzki at center in Game 1.

And now this. The Mavericks are being humiliated here. The Warriors have so much energy, backed in kind by more than 20,000 fans, it’s hard to imagine them blowing this lead. Perhaps we’re going a bit overboard here, but hell, in the last 13 years, we haven’t even been on board. Every pro basketball fan in the Bay Area should enjoy this while it lasts.